For shipping freight by land, sea or air, it is usually desirable to maximize the density of packing, within the available cargo space and the load carrying ability of the transporter. But packing density also may be limited by the nature of the materials themselves or the nature of the packaging of the materials being shipped. Otherwise materials or packaging can be crushed.
To address this issue in transporters such as trailers for hauling over land and in ocean shipping containers and, possibly, in air freight planes, they are equipped with horizontal and/or vertical slotted tracks on the inside surfaces of facing walls of the cargo space. These slots are used to receive ends of decking beams extending across the space between the walls of the trailer or container.
Decking beams, sometimes referred to as load bars, load beams, logistics bars or logistic beams, for example, are optional equipment; they are not part of a trailer or container. They may be the property of the carrier or the property of the shipper. Usually decking beams are in the form of a tube or a bar, usually made of aluminum or steel, with an end piece “footer” extendable at each end and which has a hook or some other connector which can be fitted in the slots in the tracks at facing walls in the cargo compartment. An example of a decking beam and installation more than thirty years ago, can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,174. A more recent system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,667 issued Aug. 24, 1999. The beams may be mounted at selectable heights to best accommodate the nature and size of the cargo to be transported, to minimize or eliminate stacking of packages or pallets of cargo. The beams are spaced along the length of the cargo space at locations appropriate for the cargo to be supported. Their function is to increase load capacity of the transporter without excessive stacking of cargo.
Decking beams are produced by several manufacturers. The dimensions of a decking beam are approximately 2.5″×4″×94″ when the “footers” at opposite ends are retracted. The weight of a decking beam is approximately thirty pounds each. They must be manually set in place during the loading process and manually removed during the unloading process. We believe it would be advantageous to have the beams conveniently stored in a rack that can be moved along a loading dock or from door to door in a warehouse, to be in close proximity to the site of loading or unloading a trailer or container. In addition, many loads that utilize decking beams are one-way moves. In such cases, if the trailer is to return empty to the point of origin, it may be necessary that the beams go along with it, for re-use without being actually used during the return trip. Return trips without loads are not productive. There is a need for better management of decking beams. The present invention is directed to meeting this need.